SC man who opened door to Jan. 6 Capitol rioters given 3 years in federal prison

A South Carolina man who opened a door to Jan. 6 Capitol rioters and has since renounced former President Donald Trump’s false allegations of a stolen 2020 election was sentenced Monday to three years in federal prison.

George Tenney III, 36, of Anderson County, was sentenced by U.S. Judge Thomas Hogan, who said he could not ignore “the facts of this riot.”

By coming to Washington that day, engaging in a riot and trying to take over the Capitol and stop Electoral College votes from being counted, Tenney was engaging in “a revolution against the United States,” Hogan said.

Tenney’s sentence was one of the stiffest handed down to date of any of the 19 people from South Carolina charged in the U.S. Capitol riots. He had pleaded guilty to civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding.

He could have gotten 20 years in prison.

Evidence from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, captured on surveillance tapes, showed that Tenney had not only grappled briefly with officers several times but pushed open a door that allowed nearly 50 other rioters to enter the Capitol in the initial stages of the riot.

Once in the building, some of those 50 rioters went on to fight with police, federal prosecutor Alexis Loeb told the judge. She had urged the judge to give Tenney four years in prison.

Loeb said during Tenney’s encounters with officers inside the Capitol that he was gripped by a determination “to serve what he sees as a revolution, his country is under threat and it is vital importance to him, and he is not going to let an officer get in his way.”

By letting 50 rioters into the Capitol, “it is completely foreseeable to Mr. Tenney ... what some of those rioters might do inside,” she said. One rioter went on to commit “four more assaults” inside the Capitol, she added.

Before the Jan. 6 breach, Tenney made social media postings indicating “he was ready to fight,” Loeb said.

“He wasn’t going to let officers stand in his way,” she said. “He said, ‘It’s starting to look like we may siege the Capitol building and Congress if the electoral votes don’t go right.’ He thought the U.S. was at war. He said, ‘Pence is a traitor and will betray the U.S.’“

Toward the end of the 80-minute hearing, held in a courtroom in Washington, Tenney wept as he told the judge that he had been misled by various postings on social media that enveloped him in “fear and anger” and made him think his children were in danger.

In a letter Tenney wrote to the judge, he went further, saying the former president had spread lies about a stolen election that caused him to do what he did. The letter was made public last week and made national headlines.

As a consequence of following such falsehoods, Tenney told the judge that he has lost his job, his career as a high-end cook and was forced to cash out his pension and his 401(k) retirement fund.

The judge said he was giving Tenney less than the four years asked by prosecutors because he wanted to avoid an unfair disparity with the probation sentence given to a friend of Tenney’s who had accompanied him that day.

That man, Darrell Youngers, of Texas, received probation, not only because he avoided violent actions but appeared to try to stop Tenney from fighting with police, the judge noted. The judge also said he was mindful of Tenney’s remorse.

Hogan called the Jan. 6 riots a “blight on our country that will never go away.”

More than 100 police officers were injured in the riot. One officer suffered a heart attack and four others were so traumatized they died by suicide within several weeks of the riot, the judge noted.

“They (police) were under attack for hours by people who they thought were loyal Americans,” the judge said, noting congressional staffers were “cowering in the offices” while rioters chanted “hang (Vice President) Mike Pence.”

Judge shows leniency on two counts

The judge also noted Monday that Tenney’s realization that he had been misled by politicians and social media only came after the FBI tracked him down and indicated he might be prosecuted.

“He allowed rioters to come into the Capitol who would not have otherwise come in,” Hogan said.

Tenney’s attorney, federal public defender Charles Cochran, stressed that his client had no criminal record and had asked for home detention. He told the judge that Tenney, in opening the door, was trying to prevent those outside from being crushed and hurt by the press of the crowd.

Loeb said she appreciated Tenney’s remorse at being misled by conspiracy theories but said in the future, “there could be other theories he could fall under the spell of.”

Hogan showed leniency to Tenney on two counts: Allowing him to report to prison after Christmas and waiving a $2,000 fine because, the judge said, Tenney won’t have any way to earn money in prison. However, Tenney will have to pay $2,000 in restitution for damage caused to the Capitol by the rioters when he is able, the judge said.

Approximately 900 people from nearly 50 states have been arrested in the Capitol riots, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Of those, 447 have pleaded guilty to a variety of offenses.

Eleven people from South Carolina have so far pleaded guilty to Jan. 6 Capitol riot offenses. Eight including Tenney have been sentenced and three are awaiting sentencing. Eight others have yet to be tried or decide to plead guilty.

This story was originally published December 5, 2022 at 4:02 PM.